Enrique Higa Sakuda
@kikerenzoEnrique Higa is a Peruvian Sansei (third generation, or grandchild of Japanese immigrants), journalist and Lima-based correspondent for the International Press, a Spanish-language weekly published in Japan.
Updated August 2009
Stories from This Author
Traditional Foods and Rituals to Start the New Year
Jan. 1, 2020 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
These days, it’s easy to find Japanese or Nikkei food in Lima. Perhaps the day when Japanese restaurants are as common as the popular “chifas” (Chinese-Peruvian restaurants), which can be found everywhere, isn’t far off. Ten years ago, it wasn’t so easy. Much less during the previous century. When Japanese food was still something eccentric in Peru and only known to members of the Japanese-Peruvian community, there were just a few occasions on which a Nikkei could enjoy it. These …
Harumi Suenaga's journey to the roots
Dec. 11, 2019 • Enrique Higa Sakuda , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Andean Japanese cultural syncretism. Broad horizons opened up for Harumi Suenaga García when two years ago she decided to choose a path in which the exploration of her ethnic origins and art converged. It was 2017, he was studying at the Diego Quispe Tito University, in Cusco, in the last year of his art degree, and was looking for a topic for his thesis. Granddaughter of the president of the Peruvian-Japanese Association of Cusco, student and teacher of the Japanese …
“Dojin”, never again
Nov. 18, 2019 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
Recently, a sansei was talking to me about problems he had at work when he suddenly used the word “ dojin .” I felt teleported to the 1980s, when it was an everyday term in my family and around me. So I didn't know exactly what it meant (I found out much later), but I was clear about who it meant: “them,” the Peruvians who did not have Japanese ancestry. Without knowing its real meaning, I realized that the word …
Japan, not so close anymore
Oct. 2, 2019 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
I was pleased to learn that Chile had shut out Japan 4-0 in the most recent version of the America Cup soccer tournament. I hoped that Uruguay and Ecuador, their subsequent rivals, would beat Japan as well. I wanted Japan to leave South America with zero points. I was angry that the Japanese had shown a lack of respect for the America Cup by sending their B team, as if it wasn’t worth sending their best players. Of course, South …
Meeting the Nikkei in Paraguay
July 29, 2019 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
It is Sunday in the Japanese Association of Encarnación, the third largest city in Paraguay, and a group of young Nikkei, divided into several teams, is playing a futsal tournament (one goalkeeper and four court players per side). The competitors reside in the department of Itapúa, where Encarnación is located. There is a space for the sale of drinks. A refrigerator offers water, soft drinks and beers. So far, nothing unusual; The striking thing is that there is no one …
Japan from a distance: dekasegi phenomenon, 30 years later
May 29, 2019 • Enrique Higa Sakuda , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Today, terms like “crisis”, “terrorism” or “inflation” seem like foreign words that refer to a reality that has nothing to do with that of Peru. 30 years ago, however, those three words defined the country we were. From that country, at the end of the 1980s, thousands of Nikkei began to leave for Japan with the idea of working for a few years, saving the maximum amount of money possible and returning to Peru to open a business, study or …
Óscar Chambi and his bridges towards the Nikkei
May 17, 2019 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
In the life of the photographer and sociologist Óscar Chambi there seems to be no room for chance or isolated events. Everything seems interconnected and directed so that its various paths converge towards the same destination: the Nikkei community. To trace the origins of this connection you have to go back to his childhood and travel to Cusco. His father, the filmmaker Martín Chambi, was his first bridge to the Nikkei. Óscar remembers that his father taught him to count …
The “Japanese” who found his home in Spain
April 15, 2019 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
“I am the first Nikkei candidate for a councilorship in Spain. "Shit!" Gabriel Ueda tells me. Series. Is happy. Beyond the result of the elections, being appointed to a mayoral list of the Ciudadanos party in the city of San Fernando, Cádiz, where he resides, is already an achievement. The nomination did not rain from the sky. He earned it hard. More than 15 years ago he landed in Spain and had to make his way from below. Luckily, he …
Limeño by birth, Okinawan and Cusco at heart
March 29, 2019 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
Without Machu Picchu, many people around the world would probably be unaware of the existence of Peru. Visiting the Inca citadel is an extraordinary event that mobilizes millions of people from all corners of the planet. However, for Carlos Higa Machu Picchu is like his “work office.” Traveling to one of the main tourist destinations in the world has been part of his routine for seven years, when he began working as a guide for Japanese tourists. To trace the …
Caesar Tsuneshige: Memories and legacies to last
March 6, 2019 • Enrique Higa Sakuda , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
“This is how an artist must feel,” says César Tsuneshige while being photographed. It is a new experience for him to be the subject of a photo shoot. As a veterinarian, leader of the Nikkei community, and student of the history of Japanese immigration to Peru, he is used to dedicating his attention to others. The fact that the spotlight is now on him disorients him a little. However, he also takes it as a recognition. It means that he …
